Chris Christie documents reveal anger, chaos over bridge scandal

January 11, 2014|Tribune staff and wire reports

TRENTON, New Jersey —

A New Jersey lawmaker on Saturday said he intends to formally request Governor Chris Christie and his staff hand over more correspondence and documents related to the bridge scandal that has engulfed Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat who chairs his legislative body's Transportation Committee, told CNN he would make the request on Monday because "there's still a lot of documents we haven't gotten we'd like to see."

Wisniewski told CNN on Saturday no evidence or documents have surfaced that link Christie to the lane closures, but he said the Transportation Committee was probing whether anyone else in the governor's office might have been involved.

"Our investigation would be made immeasurably simpler if the governor's office would say, 'Please tell us what you'd like, we'll turn over all of those documents, the governmental emails, the personal emails, the correspondence, so that you can look at them and determine for yourself,'" Wisniewski told CNN.

Later in the day, other New Jersey democrats shared similar sentiments."The documents released this week related to the George Washington Bridge situation clearly show the need for a continued thorough investigation by the New Jersey General Assembly," Assembly Speaker-elect Vincent Prieto said in a statement.

"Many questions remain unanswered about this threat to public safety and abuse of power," he said. "I expect to call the Assembly into special session on Thursday to consider legislation that would reauthorize subpoena power so this investigation can continue."

More than 1,000 pages of anxiously awaited documents subpoenaed by New Jersey lawmakers investigating the massive, four-day traffic jam on the George Washington bridge were made public after revelations that Christie's staff appeared to have orchestrated the closure as political payback.

Christie, seen as a likely contender for the White House in 2016, has said he knew nothing about the plan until damaging emails from his staff were revealed on Wednesday. He fired a close aide and publicly apologized for the fiasco.

The documents, many subpoenaed from former Port Authority executive David Wildstein, cast new light on the turmoil within the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency overseeing the nation's busiest bridge.

On the fourth day of the shutdown, Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, lashed out in an email to executives, including Port Authority Chairman David Samson, and ordered the lanes reopened.

"I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates Federal Law and the laws of both states," Foye said in the email.

"I pray that no life has been lost or trip of a hospital- or hospice-bound patient delayed," said Foye of the traffic jam that delayed ambulances, including one called for a 91-year-old woman who later died.

'It seems like we are punishing all for the sake of a few'

The documents show chaos and anger, but fail to clear up whether the epic tie-up was the result of what Christie said may have been a Port Authority traffic study.

In a September 6 email, Port Authority executive Daniel Jacobs, general manager of transportation, asked Gerard Quelch, in charge of planning and operations: "What is driving this?"

Quelch responded: "That is my question as well. A single toll operation invites potential disaster… It seems like we are punishing all for the sake of a few."

What is clear is that Port Authority police and bridge authorities had little advance notice of the shutdown, which they warned would paralyze Fort Lee, where three major roadways converge in an approach to the bridge.

"The 'test' was a monumental failure. Fort Lee is not happy," Bob Durando, director of the bridge, wrote in an email to a Port Authority traffic engineer.

There also appears to have been a concerted effort to keep the matter quiet. On the day he ordered the lanes reopened, Foye in an email told Wildstein's boss, Bill Baroni: "We are going to fix this fiasco."

Baroni wrote back: "I'm on my way to the office to discuss. There can be no public discourse."

Foye's response: "Bill that's precisely the problem: There has been no public discourse on this."

Christie said he was "blindsided" by the revelation that Kelly called for trouble at the commuter choke point, apparently to retaliate against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not having endorsed Christie's re-election campaign.

Christie had counted on his victory in November to show bipartisan appeal to increase his chances of winning his party's nomination for president, political experts have said.